[lojban-beginners] Re: Anyone there?Z

["Adam D. Lopresto" <adam@pubcrawler.org>]

On Thu, 19 Aug 2004, der Mouse wrote:

> > But the 'ee' in 'beet' is a diphthong IMD
>
> _That_ is weird to _me_. :-)  (As I say them, "beet" and "beat" sound
> identical, and the vowel is not diphthongal at all.  I'm not sure how
> to unambiguously describe it, lacking both IPA and the knowledge to use
> it correctly; it's the same vowel I'd use for most "-ee" endings, such
> as "thee" and "tree" and "free" and "agree" - or "bee", or even "be".
> Or "Sidhe", for that matter, though that may just confuse people.)
>
> The vowel I have trouble with is the Norwegian "y".  I still haven't
> quite figured out what it represents.  ("Æ" used to give me trouble
> too, until I found out it's the vowel that begins English words like
> "acid" and "abbey"; I have trouble _using_ it, but now at least I know
> what it's supposed to be.  I still have to struggle with my tendency to
> conflate it with "a" - malglico at work in a non-lojban context....)

And *that* is the sound I miss having in Lojban, no doubt partly thanks to my
own name.
-- 
Adam Lopresto
http://cec.wustl.edu/~adam/

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one
persists in trying to adapt the world to himself.  Therefore all
progress depends on the unreasonable man.
                -- George Bernard Shaw